Welfare & hardships -- Buffalo/Erie County/NYS (New York, Rochester: health insurance, new home)

[FedupWNY]

Quote:
Originally Posted by londonbarcelona
Buffalo does have the best of all worlds, too bad the corrupt government and all the welfare recipents are raping the city now.

Responding to London from a different thread topic... (the latest information from the US census)

Persons below poverty,(1999)

Buffalo: 26.6%
Rochester: 25.9%
Syracuse: 27.3%

This is a good link on hardships in a New York State Evaluation of welfare to work. (imho) As the cost of living increases, so do the hardships.

[FedupWNY]

I found a great link to a map giving the poverty rates throughout the United States. Click here

[zanna vaida]

Can people survive without welfare? I bet they can.

Some of them don't want to start somewhere and somehow. They blame the government instead of themselves. They say they deserve more. They don't know what a real hunger is and are spoiled by the government.
Many of them take advantage of the system and don't want to move ahead.

Don't take me wrong. Bad things can happen to all of us and in this world we don't know what to expect.

I'm not labeling all welfarists, but some are truly are just lazy people. they lack discipline and self-respect.

[FedupWNY]

Originally Posted by zanna vaida

Can people survive without welfare? I bet they can.

Some of them don't want to start somewhere and somehow. They blame the government instead of themselves. They say they deserve more. They don't know what a real hunger is and are spoiled by the government.
Many of them take advantage of the system and don't want to move ahead.

Don't take me wrong. Bad things can happen to all of us and in this world we don't know what to expect.

I'm not labeling all welfarists, but some are truly are just lazy people. they lack discipline and self-respect.

The biggest problem, this is not just Buffalo or NYS, throughout the Country, when the minimum wage goes up, so does the cost of living. Ergo poverty doesn't decrease, I'm finding that people are spending to survive but can't get ahead enough to remain off of welfare. I'm not on welfare, but I know enough to say that the cost of living in NYS is out of control, and it's easy to see how people can & do fall back onto welfare, before their 5 year limit expires. Half of my electric bill is taxes & fees. When minimum wage goes for another increase, those taxes and fees with all rise.

The cost of food, for example has sky-rocketed in the past year, or if prices haven't increased the portions per package are less.

Over a million citizens in NYS are without health coverage.

Here is the Monthly Average Number of Medicaid Eligibles by Category of Eligibility by Social Service District - Calendar Year 2007 by County in NYS.

While I am aware of the myths in people abusing the welfare system, the link I posted details the raw data. In Erie County there are 145,738 Medicaid Eligibles, for medicaid only Children: 40,295 - medicaid only Adults: 14,951. Which is a noticable difference from Medicaid and Subsistence for Children (10,917) and Adults (3,535).

[zanna vaida]

Did you ever heard how many immigrants come here through a "diversity visa" to stimulate the American economy? This is the lottery through which they win a green card-permanent residency status in the United States and is the special annual lottery, an opposit to the refugee program. Refugees get public assistance as soon as they arrive. People who win the lottery: green card-permanent residency receive no benefit -no public assistance. Anyway, they are glad to be here. They know and understand they have to work in order to better their and their family lives. They work, work, work...
They aren't lazy as welfarists who take advantage of the system.

[FedupWNY]

Originally Posted by zanna vaida

They aren't lazy as welfarists who take advantage of the system.

I found a report from 2007:

Getting a job still isn't enough to lift families out of poverty. The number of working families who are poor is much higher today than it was in 1990, despite a greater number of poor people who are working. The percentage of people in working families who are poor is up from six percent in 1990 to ten percent in 2005; some 800,000 New Yorkers from working families live in poverty. A third of all children in working families in New York State (nearly half, 47 percent, of those in New York City) live in families with incomes less than twice the poverty level.

[zanna vaida]

Looks like I'm the one who's expressing my views here. What was your questions, again? Smile.....
How poor is poor? What's your opinion?
Even kids whose parents apply for free lunches wear high priced sneakers to school. Are they really poor? Can't they just look for bargains at K'Mart?
The welfarists have free health insurance and food vouchers when people who are trying to get ahead and buy/invest their hard worked money in a house can't efford one. Law in life isn't fare.
Kids on welfare are the one who suffer because their parents don't teach them work ethics.

[FedupWNY]

Originally Posted by zanna vaida

Kids on welfare are the one who suffer because their parents don't teach them work ethics.

There is an interesting atricle in yesterday's Buffalo News, here's the link for the full story, Vendors and the poor alike getting squeezed by food costs (broken link)

Price hikes are worst to hit U.S. in 17 years

“I have to justify it,” he said. The United States is wrestling with the worst food inflation in 17 years. That’s putting the squeeze on poor families and forcing bakeries, bagel shops and delis to explain price increases to their customers.

U.S. food prices rose 4 percent in 2007, compared with an average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last 15 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And the agency says 2008 could be worse, with a rise of as much as 4.5 percent.

Higher prices for food and energy are again expected to play a leading role in pushing the government’s consumer price index higher for March.

Analysts are forecasting that Wednesday’s Department of Labor report will show the Consumer Price Index rose at a 4 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, up from last year’s overall rise of 2.8 percent.
For the poor, any increase in food costs sets up an either-or equation: Give something up to pay for food.

But for the poorest U.S. families, the higher costs may mean going hungry. A family of four is eligible for a maximum $542 a month in food stamps, which never lasted the whole month before, DiChiara said.

“Now food stamps go fewer and fewer days of the month,” she said.
The Food Bank recently got a message from a key vendor: Sorry, but the prices they charge the Food Bank would be increasing 20 percent, due to food inflation.

The myth in which people are too lazy to work isn't what is actual truth, especially here in Erie County. While most city (Buffalo) schools have changed their lunch menus to healthier meals, this cost of food is forcing portion control, and students are receiving less on their lunch trays.

When minimun wage increased, I saw a spike in my utility bills almost immediately. Half of my electric bill is made up of delivery charges, taxes & fees. I have to work more because I have to pay more, only to receive less. I'm not ashamed to say I am of the working class poor, making too much for government help... making too less for savings (retirement, college tuition for my children, a new home, a new car, etc.) I'm know I'm not alone, but I also know there are far more people in tighter financial situations. It doesn't mean they're lazy, it only means that there's more to story of Buffalo being the second poorest city in the Nation.

[zanna vaida]

I guess nobody else is interesting in talking about the poor working man hardship in WNY. Poor people don't computers with internet connections. Do they?
P.S. talking about statustics: so many. Who did and paid for them is the question.